From the archive: 11 February 1950

Premier's gentlemanly election tour

Mr. Attlee's tour in the Manchester area yesterday was for the most part a cordial and gentlemanly affair. To compare his reception with that of some of his colleagues and opponents (or such, at any rate, as expose themselves to all the elements at open meetings) is to realise that the political leaders "receive but what they give."

An Othello, a Hamlet, hands out passion and is likely to get it returned. Nobody pelts Horatio. Mr. Attlee was so plainly the symbol of reasonableness and decorum that those who disagreed with him refrained not only from being rude but from making their voices heard at all.

Everything seemed to contribute: it was a morality play on moderation. At Stockport, where he began, the local Labour party chairman mentioned that someone had commented on Mr. Bevan's blue suit and blue tie. "We take this opportunity of apologising," he said. "We will see if it is possible to get some red suits for our speakers to wear.

Mr Attlee refused to join in this battle and arrived wearing a modest neutral brown. His car, which his wife had been driving, managed to make those parked near it look flamboyant. Indeed, almost any imaginable frame to this simple and dignified portrait, the wedding-cake Town Hall not excepted, would have seemed florid.

But even moderation, Mr. Attlee appeared to feel, can go to immoderate lengths. He found it necessary to direct a little gentle criticism towards Mr. Churchill. "Apparently he thinks that we ration for the pleasure of it and simply to employ a lot of people in the Ministry of Food." And he had a reproving word for Mr. Eden and his "property-owning democracy", reminding the audience that they owned the railways, the Bank of England, and the coalmines anyway. "And," he added, coming near to raising his voice, "there'll be other things you will own presently."

Never once for all that did this master of non-gesture lift his hand from the watch-chain it was fingering. Never once did he make a "fancy promise". That he said, would be dishonest. "We have a difficult task. We are not promising that we can complete it even in the next period you give us. We set no limit to the onward advance of the people."

His recognition that there were people as well as politicians in England was received with a roar of applause. Thanks to them, there had been a recovery in this country unparalleled anywhere else. Several children sat on the knees of women near the front of the hall, and not even from this source was there any interruption.

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